Monday – Strength Session
Apologies in advance for the lack of pretty pictures…
Enjoying these gym sessions. Main exercises (squats, deadlifts, lunges) all feeling really good. The workout also has small bits of core mixed in which is definitely feeling stronger. They take a while to knock out but I can definitely feel improvement from session to session. Going to try and focus on getting some nutrition immediately after each session going forward. Today I grabbed one of Virgin Active’s café shake thingys which was pretty good. Maybe a little too sweet?
Tuesday – 1:00 Swim, 10km Run @ 5:20 Pace
Again, the swim was terribly boring. Really need to look into swimming with a posse going forward and eventually doing some open water stuff. I’m thinking the water might be super cold now though and I don’t have a wetsuit so will have to hold off on that I think.
For the run, I didn’t really go through any kind of warm up and felt a little niggle on the inside of my left knee. Stopped 1km in and went through my stretches in front of an old lady’s house which seemed to fix the problem. Felt like I could carry on at this pace for ages and was a great way to ease into another week.
Wednesday – 1:30 Indoor Cycle, 10km Run @ 4:50 Pace
I did these sessions back to back to try and replicate the game day situation. Hamish (conditioning coach) mentioned that doing a bike workout on the indoor trainer is roughly 20%-30% more difficult and I definitely felt that today. Legs felt like goo afterwards and my hip was randomly sore on one side. It was definitely better than my previous indoor cycles from a while back so good to see some progression. Note; I sweat too much.
Moved into the run once I got home and early doors realised if I’m going to do this again, I need to bring some kind of nutrients on the cycle and run. Felt tired and weak for probably the first half and the uphill components of the run definitely had me on the back foot. Despite that, actually ran some good time and with a pretty good heart rate (averaged 162 bpm). The aim for this run next week will be to up the pace to 4:40 – 4:45 mins/km. I’m confident I can get it there with a bit more careful planning with my nutrition before and throughout.
Thursday – 1:00 Swim, 1:30 Indoor Cycle
Absolutely freezing today, 0 chance I was doing an outdoor ride so hit the indoor trainer for another 1:30hr session.
I wrote the above comment on Thursday morning. Karma is confirmed and 100% real I’m sure because it turns out I’d forgotten my joggers, so following the swim, I dragged myself home and onto the regular bike for an 1:30hr session. After 20mins of warming up, it wasn’t the worst thing ever. Ideally I would’ve done the session indoors but that’s what I get for getting too cocky.
Friday – HIIT Session (Boxing), 1:00 Run, Strength Session
Have done a lot of these boxing sessions over the past few months and they’re always great fun. They are my only extremely high intensity workout each week.
The run was nasty cold, but it feels good getting out of work for the week and going through the run and weights session to end the working week.
Saturday – 3:00 Cycle
Decided to try out the Olympic Park loops which I really enjoyed. At no point did I feel like I was going to get hit, run over, knocked, and flattened by a car or truck so this immediately made it the most enjoyable ride yet. I suspect this will be my new go-to cycling route. If anyone’s up for a big cycle each Saturday morning going forward, please let me know! Will hopefully ramp up the duration to 3.5hrs next Saturday.
I definitely need to be better prepared for nutrition on the ride though. I didn’t bring any food or gels on this one and was ready to stop with about 30mins left
Sunday – REST
Following yesterday’s ride, we travelled down to our nation’s capital to watch the Brumbies in their Super Rugby quarter final. After a ripper performance, I had a few too many Ribenas and ended up too unwell to partake in a run today. I will have to knock this one over tomorrow. Fingers crossed I can get the distance up to about 20km. Keen to see how I’m tracking with these longer runs!
22 weeks until game day!
I’ve got a follow up nutritionist appointment on Friday to align what I’m eating more closely with my new conditioning plan. Excited to get that sorted and try some different meals
As always, if you have any suggestions or ideas to help raise awareness for sarcoma research and/or the work CRBF do, please shoot me a message on social media or via email (jack.racklyeft@gmail.com). Please share this, or any information from my donation page below to anyone and everyone you can. I have no doubt that slowly but surely, we will start to raise awareness and to make a truly positive change:
https://donorbox.org/jack-s-ironman-for-sarcoma